Millar Cup v Bridge B (h)

Broadstairs 1½    Bridge B 5½

1 David Faldon (170) 0-1           Richard Eales (201)
2 Bob Page (141) 1-0           Alan Atkinson (182)
3 Paul Carfrae (132) 0-1           Mark Mortimer (159)
4 John Couzens (131) 0-1           Shany Rezvany (157)
5 Andy Flood (e114) 0-1           James Essinger (155)
6 David Wheatley (106) 0-1           Patrick Burns (e137)
7 Reg Pidduck (104) ½-½           Shahid Sahi (107)

David Faldon writes:

Let’s look on the bright side. We improved on our first meeting with Bridge (1-6) and Bob won a splendid game on Board 2 against a very strong opponent. Bob (white) played the King’s Gambit and soon achieved a promising position, winning a pawn. His opponent did get a passed pawn in compensation, but Bob managed to block it. At some point it looked like a draw might result, but black tried a bit too hard to remove the blockade and Bob spotted a chance to get both of his rooks onto the seventh rank with a crushing attack. The other half point came on Board 7 when Reg also won a pawn but at the cost of a totally sterile position. Reg had eight pawns and a bishop all on white squares while his opponent had seven pawns and a bishop all on dark squares. At the end Reg (or his opponent) could have played 20 moves in a row and still not been able to make progress. Of the other games, we had some winning chances on Boards 1 and 6 but in both cases the Bridge players came up with clever defensive ideas to spoil the fun, while on Board 4 John got in his characteristic sacrifice on f7 but this time it didn’t do him any good. All in all a bit of a disappointing final score that didn’t reflect all the effort we put in against a side that outgraded us by 30 points on average. None of the games was completely one-sided and everyone can take heart that we still have two more chances to beat Bridge this season!

Millar Cup v Margate (h)

Broadstairs 6 Margate 1

 

1 David Faldon (170) 1-0           Peter McGill (152)
2 Bob Page (141) 0-1           Harry Sharples (151)
3 Paul Carfrae (132) 1-0           Clive Le Baigue (118)
4 John Couzens (131) 1-0           Colin Gregory (117)
5 Andy Flood (e114) 1-0           Leon Garfield (101)
6 Reg Pidduck (104) 1-0           John Clarke (86)
7 Bob Cronin (101) 1-0           James Maskell (80)

David Faldon writes:

Our fifth match, our fifth … no … no … rewrite coming up … we actually won this one. Mind you, an hour into the match you’d have got a good price against that happening. We were a queen for bishop and knight down on board 4, a rook for knight down on board 7 and a whole rook down on board 2. True, we were a nice pawn up on board 3 but that hardly seemed sufficient compensation. The carnage started on board 4. John (white) sacrificed a knight on f7 with his ninth move, attacking queen and rook, but instead of taking the knight, Colin counter-sacrificed a bishop on f2 with check. John could have captured this bishop with his king with a roughly equal game but instead he tried Kf1, dropping his queen to a knight fork on e3. Oops. Amazingly, that wasn’t the end of the game. John regrouped and, after a few mistakes from Colin, he was back with a few threats of his own. Meanwhile on board 2, and also on move nine, Bob P (white) was faced with a knight sacrifice on his f2 square, forking rook and queen. Bob could have captured this pesky knight with his king, emerging just a pawn down, but instead he moved his queen, bravely sacrificing a whole rook …Three spectacular sacrifices on f2/f7 in two games, and a few moves later there came a fourth when Margate’s board 1 (white) couldn’t resist throwing in a Nxf7 sacrifice, attacking black’s queen and rook. This time the capture king takes knight wouldn’t have been good, nor would moving the queen, nor would moving the rook, nor would counter-sacrificing against white’s king, but instead David found a fifth way, a queen sacrifice. Amidst all the mayhem some calm chess was going on. Paul on board 3 was a safe pawn up, Andy on board 5 had a big passed pawn and Reg on board 6 had cleverly swapped both of his bishops for his opponent’s knights. In the blocked-up position that resulted Reg’s knights could hop this way and that while his opponent’s bishops just got in the way of his rook. Three much-needed wins for Broadstairs on the way? In fact two wins for Broadstairs did turn up pretty soon. The first came from an unexpected source, board 7. Bob C’s (unintentional) rook for knight speculation paid a big dividend when his knight popped out of the way of a discovered check to win his opponent’s queen. The second win came on board 1 when a long swap-off sequence left David a clear bishop up. 2-0 soon became 2-1 when Bob P’s swindling chances evaporated but Paul and Reg and John all cashed through for wins. 5-1. In the last game to finish Andy found a nice rook for knight sacrifice to defuse his opponent’s last flicker of hope. 6-1. In the end a comfortable win, but the lopsided 6-1 result was, in truth, a bit flattering. Still, we’ve played well and lost matches in the past, so we should celebrate this win while we can. I’m sure that the return match at Margate in January will be interesting.

Game of the Week 4

White: David Faldon (170)               Black: Peter McGill (152)

(Mick Croft Cup semi-final)

 

David Faldon writes:

This was an exciting game, full of mistakes. Luckily for me my opponent made the last one. When Peter played 6… e5 I hit on the ridiculous idea of surrounding and trapping a black knight on d4 by playing g4-g5, Be2-c4, a2-a4, Nc3-b1 and c2-c3. Unfortunately Peter gets to play some moves too. After my 12. Nb1 I was completely lost as 12… Nxe4 13. fxe4 Qh4+ 14. Kd2 Qxe4 15. Ne2 Nf3+ is crushing. What Peter chose instead is pretty good too and if he’d found 15… Bh3+ 16. Nxh3 Qxh3+ 17. Kf2 Qxh6 then white is dead as black has the terrible threat of 18… Qxd2. Luckily for me Peter didn’t see how strong 15… Bh3+ was. Instead he went for 15… Nxe4 16. Nxe4 Rxf3+ which looks fantastic. The only problem is that there is no mate. After Peter’s 18… Qg4+ I managed to calculate right to the final position, which is quite impressive considering that I was short of time. Less impressive is the fact that it took me until move 19 before I started playing well.

Millar Cup v Herne Bay (a)

Broadstairs 3   Herne Bay 4

1 David Faldon (170) ½-½             Gordon Botley (186)
2 Bob Page (141) 0-1             Stuart Williams (179)
3 Paul Carfrae (132) ½-½             Bob Pooley (147)
4 John Couzens (131) ½-½             Luke Kyte (139)
5 Andy Flood (e114) 0-1             Paul Arnold (125)
6 David Wheatley (106) ½-½             Rob Hamilton (113)
7 Bob Cronin (101) 1-0             Eddie Ridley (62)

David Faldon writes:

Our fourth match, our fourth defeat, but things are looking up. This was a terrific match against strong opposition that twisted and turned and was only decided in the last few minutes. Everybody enjoyed themselves tremendously and if we can repeat that enthusiasm next time we might even win a match! Bob C on board 7 got us off to a great start with a quick win. Despite a dull opening which saw all the bishops and knights rapidly hoovered off the board, Bob C kept up the pressure and was rewarded when he got the chance for a snap mate. Boards 1 and 4 were next to finish, both games agreed drawn after initial fireworks fizzled out. Blame the damp weather not the football as when John and I got downstairs to the pub the Arsenal and Liverpool games were already over.

The other four games all lasted right up until closing time. The first result in was a defeat on board 5 when Andy had to resign after a long rearguard action. The next two games to finish ended in two draws, leaving the match poised at 3-3. Both of these games were incredibly tough. David W on board 6 dropped a couple of pawns in the middle game but fought back hard in a complicated queen and pawn ending. At the finish his opponent was relieved to be able to force a draw, despite still being two pawns up. The board 3 game was the twistiest game of all. Paul got tricked in the opening and lost a pawn but he cleverly turned the tables in the middle game, winning an exchange (rook for bishop). The resulting queen-and-rook-and-passed-pawns versus queen-and-bishop-and-passed-pawns ending was great fun to watch but must have been nerve-wracking to play. At one point Paul had his king trapped on the back rank and it looked like he might get mated but he survived by swapping queens. With time running out and one of Paul’s passed pawns starting to motor down the board the Herne Bay player threw in a sneaky draw offer, which was accepted. Both players looked exhausted at the end.

The last game to finish also tested both players to the limit. Bob P on board 2 got his king trapped in the corner, dead to a check down the h-file. For an hour or more Bob P resisted all of his highly-rated opponent’s attempts to get a queen or a rook to h3, but in the end his defending pieces got tied down. With both flags close to falling, the Herne Bay player managed to find a way to break through, winning a piece and the game. A shame for us all and especially for Bob P who’d played splendidly. Congratulations to Herne Bay on a hard-fought victory.